Blizzard's stealth-action game StarCraft: Ghost may be on indefinite hold, but according to Sam Didier it still remains a valuable resource in the development of titles like StarCraft II.

The subject of StarCraft: Ghost came up during my interview with StarCraft II art director Didier as a joke at first. I asked him when StarCraft: Ghost was coming out, and he replied, "Didn't you get it? It was out at GC in Germany, running on the PS Slim or whatever they're calling it," he teased. I mentioned reading the StarCraft: Ghost novel, and how it really made me want to play the game that didn't exist. "Oh it exists," he replied.

"We actually looked at a lot of the art assets so we could include them in specific missions in the game, or if there was a specific installation in Ghost that we wanted to include in StarCraft II. We look at all our assets."

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He likens it to the situation with the cancelled Warcraft: Lord of the Clans adventure game. "Originally Lord of the Clans was like that. We cancelled Lord of the Clans for a lot of similar reasons, but Thrall ended up as the biggest character in the Horde. I'm not saying that's Nova, but we're definitely not throwing away the lore."

It's good to know that all of that StarCraft: Ghost development didn't go to waste. If you're interested in of the lore behind Ghost and its lovely protagonist Nova, be sure to check out the StaCraft: Ghost Nova novel, recently featured in our 2009 Summer Reading List.